Today we’re kicking off our celebration of TPM’s 20th Anniversary, “Twenty Years, Twenty Tales”, 20 stories about TPM and its history, with six of those stories dropping today. They range from the technical and serious – how TPM started, the business dynamics of the operations to the giddy, louche and even frivolous, our epic tradition of TPM-ified mixed drinks and staff carousing.
I am particularly excited to see this launch because I get to read the 20 stories. They’re all new to me. I didn’t write any of them, though I was interviewed for two or three of them. My involvement in the whole project was almost entirely limited to answering questions and digging up some documents, photographs and the like. History is seldom best told by those who were part of it. It distorts perspective. So I am doubly blessed not only to have had the good fortune of these last twenty years but to see what my colleagues make of it, see it through their eyes and the eyes of various alums and observers who shared their perspective on what the team has done -how and why and when – going back to 2000.
I hope you enjoy it. I hope it adds to your understanding of the site and its history. I hope, for many of you, it brings back memories. My way of celebrating is to think about the future. I hold close the words of my mentor: websites, like people, not busy being born are busy dying. We have those tumultuous, creative energies – enlivened and energized by a new generation of smart and ambitious TPMers – propelling us forward to a future we will create.